'Spree' shooter straying from typical serial killer motivation - main desire is to provoke terror

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | October 12, 2002 | San Francisco Chronicle Staff

[MeekOneGOP]

'Spree' shooter straying from typical serial killer motivation

Gunman's main desire is to provoke terror in community, experts say

10/12/2002

San Francisco Chronicle

Experts who study serial killers say the Maryland sniper, unlike most serial killers, kills from a distance because he is more interested in causing terror in the community than he is in getting to know his individual victims.

The Maryland gunman is a "spree killer," someone who kills several people in a small window of time, some experts say, as opposed to a serial killer, who may space his killings over months or years or a mass murderer, who kills many people all at once.

Charles Patrick Ewing, a professor of law and psychology at State University of New York at Buffalo, said the sniper, who has used a rifle at distances of more than 100 yards, appears to be more like the anonymous attacker who mailed last year's anthrax-laced letters.

The anthrax attacks "were driven by the desire to terrorize the community, and the person who mailed the letters didn't appear to really care about who died as a result of them."

"I don't recall a case like this where the murders have been committed at such a distance," Mr. Ewing said. "It is so impersonal."

Classic serial homicide theory is based on sexual motivation, and the killer often stalks or tortures the victim and kills at close range.

The classic view is spelled out by Robert Ressler, a former FBI agent who pioneered psychological profiling and interviewed infamous killers such as Jeffrey Dahmer, David Berkowitz and Ted Bundy.

"To a man, they [serial killers] were dysfunctional sexually," Mr. Ressler wrote in his 1992 book, Whoever Fights Monsters. "They were unable to have and maintain mature, consensual sexual experiences with other adults, and they translated that inability into sexual murders."

Several Northern California cases underscore the classic view. The Zodiac killed six during a series of homicides in the late 1960s, then taunted police in letters to newspapers and law enforcement agencies. Though the Zodiac killer was never captured, many officials who worked the case are convinced that he was Arthur Leigh Allen, a convicted child molester who died in 1992 at age 58.

Similarly, Ed Kemper killed eight Northern California women in the early 1970s and enjoyed visiting his mother afterward while his victim's body was hidden in the trunk of his Volkswagen.

Mr. Kemper said he hated his mother, and she was one of his final victims before he turned himself in.

And Charles Chitat Ng, who killed 11 people in the mid-1980s, made videotapes of himself and his accomplice, Leonard Lake, sexually torturing two of their victims in an isolated shack.

Brent Turvey, a professional profiler from Sitka, Alaska, and author of the textbook, Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis, agrees that the Maryland sniper is different from classic serial murderers.

"Those comparisons are completely inappropriate," he said. "The reason why everybody is making those comparisons is because they are all talking to the retired profilers who made those kinds of cases in the 1970s."

Mr. Turvey said he thinks the Maryland sniper is more like Andrew Cunanan, who killed five people, including designer Gianni Versace, during a cross-country rampage in 1997.

"Cunanan was a classic spree killer," Mr. Turvey said. "A serial killer will kill multiple people on multiple dates with a nice cooling-off period in between. A spree killer will kill a bunch of people in a very narrow window of time.

"Most of these Maryland-area crimes occurred in a very short period," Mr. Turvey said. "He did his killing, then went home to watch the coverage on TV."

Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.

"I don't recall a case like this where the murders have been committed at such a distance. It is so impersonal."

Charles Patrick Ewing, a professor of law and psychology at State University of New York at Buffalo

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Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/latestnews/stories/101202dnnatmotives.9f20c.html

[fone]

NO matter what the "experts" theories are, I get the feeling they are stumped by this one.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Flipping around the TV dial looking for the VA press conference on the shooting in Spotsylvania, I came across a CNN show (Fox had a financial show on) called Saturday Edition.

Guess what?: the host and all the reporters are women. They're all sitting around in comfy chairs. I'm expecting someone to break out the Tupperware at any moment.

What can justify an all-female news show? What would happen if a network made a decision to intentionally exclude women from a news show and have a men-only show?

[governsleastgovernsbest]

VA Gov. Mark Warner just came on. I swear it looks like he has bleached-blond hair. What's up with that?

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Warner's statements were also incredibly insipid. He also encouraged people to go on with their lives, and mentioned that he will be attending a parade later in the day.

Of course, he is sure to have a major security team surrounding him, something not available to the average citizen.

[Nogbad]

The anthrax attacks "were driven by the desire to terrorize the community, and the person who mailed the letters didn't appear to really care about who died as a result of them."

"I don't recall a case like this where the murders have been committed at such a distance," Mr. Ewing said. "It is so impersonal."

Well we know who the culprit is then. Have they checked whether Steven Hatfill owns a white van?

[Nogbad]

ping

[TShaunK]

Last nite on either fox or msn they were asking this proffesor from a north east college what type of people would do this kind of thing , and he gave all kinds of reasons including because the economy was in bad shape. I almost sh!t my pants...Now I hope when they catch this guy and ask him why the hell he is doing this I hope he says it is because taxes are to high or because of affirmitive action...Anyway just another liberal egg head trying to get a liberal thinking cheap shot in.

[Sgt_Schultze]

The police were all excercised yesterday looking for a white van. The shooter has been able to elude police now after 10 shootings. It's more likely the shooter is two people - one serving as a lookout. It may be that the while the shooter aquires a target, the accomplice keeps a lookout for approaching observers and a white truck in the vacinity of the target.

At the proper time, after a white truck has passed, the shooter can take his victim. All eyes notice the white truck leaving the vacinity of the shooting. Heck, the shooters could leave the area in a red Dodge Viper and drive right past police blockades.

At any rate, it seems folly to think that a shooter(s?), who have successfully eluded capture for two weeks, are still tooling around in the exact vehicle the police are seeking.

How long until the shooter sticks around and takes a member of the first responding EMT's on the scene? How long until the shooter takes a reporter, live on TV? How long until the shooter takes a spokesman during one of the staged press events?

[tomkat]

shhhhh ... you're asking all those pesky relevant questions !

[MsLady]

I agree!!!

One thing is for sure, whoever is doing this is being driven by pure evil. May G-d take him down before he/she kills again.

[eastforker]

As someone else mentioned,this could be an anti-hunter type also.His method of shooting is comparable to how a hunter kills his prey,shooting at a distance that is.The "I am God" statement refers to the fact he has the power of life or death over his subjects IMO.

[MsLady]

I was even thinking he could just walk away. If the gun is as compact as they say it could be, a jacket could cover up the weapon. This is a crowded area, who's going to notice someone walking away from over 100 yards away?

[Sgt_Schultze]

He might be on foot. But it is certain he has evaluated his target for clear line-of-sight. It might serve law enforcement if they would investigate the crime scenes with attention to direction of fire. They could go back along the line of sight and visit the shooting scene instead of the killing scene. There may be certain similarities among the various blinds the shooter is using.

[jgorris]

It's more likely the shooter is two people - one serving as a lookout.

Not so sure about that. A single shooter with a cold blooded and calculating mind, and an eye for picking out good shooting positions could do this just as well as two people. It just seems unlikely that two or more people could be of the same mind to commit this type of "impersonal" attack without some sort of more obvious common motivation (i.e. terrorism for political causes). But if it is more than one shooter motivated by terror, why aren't the terrorists making known their cause?

In any case, the focus on the white van must be some sort of disinformation play on the part of the authorities. Hard to believe that the perp(s) would continue to use a white van after the media coverage and also hard to believe that the investigators would not factor this in.

What a sick, twisted mess.

[Dog Gone]

At the elementary school shooting, we know the cops identified the place where the shots were fired. The note and the tarot card were left there.

Presumably, they also have scent swabs from that location. It might very well be a dog who eventually identifies the sniper.

[aristeides]

If the sniper shoots a newsperson, won't he be taking too much of a risk of being caught on camera? Which suggests first responders to the shootings ought in future to be sure to be accompanied by somebody carrying a camera.

[aristeides]

Let's hope they've used dogs to find the other places the sniper shot from.

[aristeides]

In any case, the focus on the white van must be some sort of disinformation play on the part of the authorities.

The authorities may feel they have to tell the public something, and, since they cannot say what they really know for some reason, they tell us about the white van instead to keep us pacified.

[Sgt_Schultze]

I don't discout al-Quaida terrorism at all. This is exactly the behavior threatened months ago when the US was warned that its citizens would face death going about their daily activities.